seanrooney

I have an old steel Univega, mostly original. A while back, my handlebars rotated slightly forward while i was on the uprights going down a hill (I'm fairly heavy, maybe it was too much weight). The angle was still fine, so I never tried to adjust the handlebar clamp and tighten it down, thinking I may end up over-torqueing

Last week - the bars rotated even further, and felt a little lose, able to rotate them up and down about 10 degrees. I took the bolt out thinking I would clean the bolt/threads out, apply loctite, and tighten properly. When I slid the handlebars out, I saw some damage on the handlebars where the clamp tightens down. Looks like some of the metal completely stripped off

1. Should I consider these toast? Or is it worth using them still?
2. If they're ruined - any recommendations on where to find some cheap, decent handlebars? This bike isn't exactly high performance, something workable is fine. I do have a bike co-op relatively nearby

thanks in advance

canalligators

On close examination, it looks like the metal has undergone a shearing tear. I would not use those bars, they are probably weakened and could break off completely. Especially so that you're not a light rider.

There are a number of companies that make reasonably priced handlebars and stems. Nitto and Sun come to mind right off, there are others.

79pmooney

The missing metal is on the reinforcing sleeve, not the bar itself. And where bars break is at the edge of the stem or edge of that sleeve (under your bar tape. You do have a scratch along the stem edge from the rotation. That looks much more minor but would be a bigger concern for me. At 150 pound, I could probably ride it safely but it is also one of the links in "the chain" - the line all forces from the road and your input to the handlebars that goes through; tire, front wheel, fork, head tube and steerer, stem, bars and brake levers when you are on them. Failures on the chain hurt. At speed - broken bones in hands, arms, shoulder, collarbone. Head hits; even very hard head hits.

This post written by someone who had a failure on that chain and spent 5 days in a coma, Broken collarbone and bruises and road rash I was spared of as I wasn't there.

Go look at the Nittos. Great bars. You'll probably be able to find very close to the same bend and width. (Measure or have a shop measure what you've got. Could be 25.4 mm diameter or 26.0. Get it right or get a matching stem or make a shim from a coke can to bring a 25.4 bar to a 26.0 stem You're a bigger rider so you may have issues keeping a shimmed bar silent. I've done it as a permanent solution (other than having to be renewed every time the bar comes off).

And edit: Don't feel bad. All aluminum bars fail. Yes, all. (Some are retired before that happens.) These have seen their day. I suspect they have served well. Send them off with thanks to the happy home. And be grateful you retired them before ...

seanrooney

..before they retired me? Ha - I assumed this was normal after 35 years, but appreciate the confirmation. My calipers suggest they are 25.4mm, but better to have a shop check. Per a scanned image of the original Univega, the bars as "Kusuki WP-B", but no diameter. Seems to stand for "winpista" and most of the ebay results are 25.4mm

I'm in the SF Bay Area, I have a co-op not too far away. I'll give that a shot first, it will be helpful to have the experts around if I'm re-attaching the levers anyways. You think as long as the co-op is selling it, it's worth going with the cheaper option? vs buying a Nitto handlebar new and being certain it's strong?

Joe Remi

I'd go new. I'm not 150 lbs. anymore and handlebars have a lifecycle I don't want to guess at. New bars for the win!

SurferRosa

Well, millions of people have used and are using road bars from the 1970s Bike Boom and before. All my bars are vintage, pre-1990. Nearly everyone that hangs out in the c&v subforum uses vintage bars. Personally, I worry more about the zombie apocalypse ... and cars.

greatscott

Exactly, most AL bars on the average bike were made of thicker, and thus heavier, and thus more stout, those things lasted forever. The only time you should consider your AL bars is if you have some sort of uber light racing bars, and you used the bike for racing and put a lot of stress on the bar, then maybe every 15,000 miles; but standard bars will last 100,000 miles and more. I have my old racing bike I use to race on in the mid 80's, I did replace the uber light bars I had on it, can't recall the brand, I have too many bikes and bars laying around to recall that, but I replaced that bar with a mid level bar since I wasn't racing any more, that bar has roughly 110,000 miles on it, it's fine.

The other issue with uber light racing stuff from my period (the 80s) was the stem, sometimes those would tweak a bit, so when I replaced my bar I also replaced the stem.

I would be a lot more worried about CF bars than AL bars. Al bars don't just suddenly fail on you like CF bars can, what AL bar will do is slowly bend on one side, you see bikes like that every once in awhile on Craigslist, but CF bars will just suddenly snap, no bending to warn of you impending doom.

Andrew R Stewart 

While I pretty much agree with most of the suggestions to ex the bars i will say this. They are a sleeved central section type, This doubles (or seriously increases) the bar's wall thickness. But in this case more importantly it also means there's two layers that will need to both crack/fail/break before one loses complete control. Most current drop bars are made with a single tube, no central reinforcing sleeve to save cost and weight (which most here will say is a good thing). It is with this design that a crack is really a bad thing as it will only take one structural wall to crack and fail. I think some here will say this is a bad thing. Just some interesting bits to ponder. Andy

Joe Remi

New bars. They're not expensive enough to blow off and buy used. Is what I'm saying.

FBinNY 

I've seen much, much worse still in use.

This is a subtle advantage of old tech that folks don't consider.

Prior to the digital age, manufacturing was less consistent. Plus the materials were weaker and more ductile. So not knowing the exact strength, people overbuilt. So plenty of forgiveness there.

Bars of this vintage are far more likely to bend rather than snap.

smd4

What’s all that black stuff? You didn’t grease that area, did you?

Lombard

Yes. With that crack, time to give them their last rites.

icemilkcoffee 

Agreed. 7075 bars are the ones that suffer the most corrosion. Typically these are lightweight bars. The typical heavy (ie. 300+g) Nitto bars are made from 6061 aluminum and much less prone to corrosion.
I seriously doubt that. I have a carbon drop bar where the center section is cracked from the previous owner overtightening the clamp. Even with the crack, it absolutely will not budge no matter how hard I try to bend it.

grumpus

I'd want to clean them thoroughly (solvent and stiff brush) and inspect the area closely - just the displaced bit of sleeve doesn't worry me, but significant damage at the edge of the clamped area would. If there's no sign of cracking I'd refit them and put all my weight on the lever hoods to check for any sign of movement. or scary noises. If they pass that test then they're probably OK.

easyupbug 

^^^ I would clean and inspect as grumpus said to satisfy e they are toast. If there is a co-op near almost certainly replace with a clean used set or search craig's list or ebay, etc.